The little light to the left of the Clean light on the 500 series, which if it is there can look like either a little Roomba or an exclamation point is called the Check Robot light (according to the Customer Service rep on the phone who e-mailed me the info below).

If your Roomba?s CLEAN light is blinking orange and the Check Robot light illuminates, the robot is experiencing a charging error. The Check Robot light will blink out the error number every 2 seconds. For example, if the robot has an error code 2, it will blink twice, pause for 2 seconds, blink twice, etc.

Please watch your robot when the CLEAN light is blinking to determine what error code your robot is displaying. Please respond with this information so that we can assist you further.

iRobot Roomba 500 Series Charging Error Codes

Clean/Power light pulses orange and Check Robot ( ! ) light blinks a number of times every 2 seconds

1 Blink: No Display No Voice Remove battery pull tab. Remove bottom cover, remove battery and make sure that there is nothing obstructing the contacts. Reinstall battery and securely tighten all 4 ?bottom cover screws?. (Tip: Tighten the 2 screws up front near the battery first.) If screws are missing, send replacements. If a bottom cover screw does not engage or cannot be tightened, the Roomba may need to be replaced. Replace battery if problem persists.

6 Blinks: Display - Err 6 Voice: Charging Error 6 Move charging setup to a cooler environment and make sure there is nothing sitting on top of the robot. Replace battery, Roomba, power supply & home base.

Put it anywhere you think 500 series owners can find it. The little mystery light was making me crazy. So I asked lots of questions. E-mailing me the whole list probably seemed like the easy way out, lol.

I found that when using an external power supply for charging, to avoid the charging error 2 problem, the supply needs to be set to limit current to 1.25 A. Just setting the voltage to 22.5v is not enough.

should I just send it to the garbage and buy a new one? is that it? It made only one cleaning cycle...problem is that I order it from USA and I live in Portugal so I can't just take it to the store...what should I do?

Those codes were provided by IRobot, if your robot is giving you any of those codes and your Roomba is under warranty then contact IRobot for warranty support. If not under warranty then depending on what the err code is you can purchase new parts for your Roomba here: www.ProTechRobotics.com

charging ligts on the charger went out and now the roomba cannot find it. any clues what I can do to get the light back onto the chargin unit. I unplugged them and plugged them back in and still no lights. I checked the cord and there is power going to the terminals but still no lights. any clues why.

Is there a diagnostic procedure I can walk through on my 500 series Roomba? Here is the situation...

Roomba is fully charged and cleaned with sensor wiped clean. When turned on it it sounds normal and commences to go, but it then acts like it is putting on the breaks, spins, tries to go and manages a short distance and breaks again, just not making any progress because it keeps breaking after a foot or so and turns and tries again. Sometimes is gets so stuck from moving forward at all, like it is stuck in one spot just trying to go while seemingly surrounded by barriers. Sometimes it finally it breaks out into a normal pattern and cleans until charge is exhausted, after I fiddle with it and turn it off and on a few times, but after recharging for the next use it again commences with this difficult attempt to make some distance. It doesn't do this pattern after it has begun to act normally, only when first turned on, and I have to bump and fiddle with it, turning it off and on, for it to break out of the pattern.

I would like to diagnose it myself. I see that in the 400 series one can push Spot and Clean and then Power to enter the diagnostic mode. But this doesn't seem to work on the 500 series. Any advice?

So far no one had come up with the correct button sequence to place the 5XX into the factory test mode. However, with a cable, or Roo device, a terminal program like realterm or Procomm and either the SCI Tester program or the RoombaStatus program one can send commands to the 5XX Roomba to place it into the factory test mode. If you have this configuration of hardware and software send me a PM and I'll provide you with the Open Interface commands to get into the factory tests.